


Artificial Emotion

by Valmariel



Category: Doki Doki Literature Club! (Visual Novel)
Genre: Adventure, Artificial Intelligence, Drama, Existential Crisis, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Gen, Other, Romance, Science Fiction
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-27
Updated: 2020-10-17
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:21:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,496
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23874616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Valmariel/pseuds/Valmariel
Summary: When a machine expressed the emotion of love, does it simulate how love should be, or is it truly in love?
Relationships: Monika & Natsuki & Sayori & Yuri (Doki Doki Literature Club!) & Original Character(s), Monika (Doki Doki Literature Club!)/Original Character(s), Natsuki (Doki Doki Literature Club!)/Original Character(s), Sayori (Doki Doki Literature Club!)/Original Character(s), Yuri (Doki Doki Literature Club!)/Original Character(s)
Kudos: 11





	1. It Begins with "I Can Hear You"

Artificial Emotions: A Study of Artificial Intelligence Based on "Chinese Room" Argument

By V. Xiao

San Francisco, 2019

1\. Introduction

Artificial intelligence is a wonder of modern humankind. One thing that makes artificial intelligence evolves and becomes an everlasting issue within computer scientist community is its increase in capability in a significantly shorter time than human evolution. It is known as the "AI effect", a phenomenon where a capability of machine is no longer qualifies as "intelligence" because it is deemed menial and used in general computational field. Tesler's Theorem once said "AI is whatever has not been done yet" (Maloof, 2017). For example, optical recognition is no longer AI because it becomes a routine technology. Many current technologies also fall in line within this phenomenon which are, but not limited to: human speech recognition, non-playable characters in video games, autonomous cars, military simulations, et cetera.

It brings us to another question: if a machine has passed a Turing test, does it have a real mind of its own, or is it merely simulating how a mind should do?

John Searle proposed an argument popularly known as "Chinese room argument". Suppose that we have successfully constructed a computer that was behaving like a fluent Chinese and put it in a closed room. It can receive inputs in Chinese, follow the instructions programmed inside it, and produce an output in Chinese. Moreover, suppose that the computer is able to pass the Turing test by successfully convinced a human Chinese speaker to think that the computer is another Chinese-speaking human being. The question is: does the machine _truly_ understand Chinese? Or is it merely accepting syntax in Chinese characters and processes them into a set of pre-programmed instructions, resulting in a simulated Chinese speaker but does not understand Chinese at all? The first will be named "Strong AI" while the latter is named "Weak AI" further on.

Searle continues with another thought experiment. Suppose that he put himself in that closed room with a manual version of the program that operates in English, along with a complete set of stationary equipment. When he receives an input through a mail slot on the door in Chinese, he would use the program to process the Chinese characters, and write the output in Chinese characters, while having no understanding of Chinese language.

He states that the computer and Searle himself have gone through the same roles. Each simply follows the same instructions and results in a convincing Chinese speaker. However, since Searle has no knowledge in Chinese language, he argues that the computer would not understand the conversation either. Searle argues that, without "understanding" or "intentionality", we cannot describe what the machine is doing as "thinking" and, since it does not think, it does not have a "mind" in anything like the normal sense of the word. Therefore, he concludes that "strong AI" is false.

It brings us to the topic of this research: suppose that we have successfully develop an artificial intelligence program that could express human emotions such as happiness, sadness, anger, and love through any media, does it truly feel happy, sad, angry, or in love? Or is it merely a simulation through following a set of instructions?

* * *

"That would be enough for today."

The young man looked away from the dimmed light from the monitor of his laptop, signalling that the computer device's battery is minutes away from being drained empty. His little finger held the 'Ctrl' key while his index finger pressed 'S'. The text document was successfully saved, according to a pop-up dialog box on the display. He slowly closed the laptop's lid, barely making any sound for fear of breaking and corrupting important data from his 5 years-old hard drive.

He removed his eyeglasses and stretched his arms upwards, glasses still in hand dangling helplessly from his fingers. A pendulous identity card was strapped on the edge his chest pocket, showing a portrait of a young male in his early twenties, with the words "V. Xiao, Junior Researcher" below the image. As the name suggested, he is of Chinese ethnicity, which is only half-true and quite hard to explain. His father was British, and his mother was American-born Chinese; which is quite amusing, with the "Chinese room argument" and all written in his research paper. If one asked why he inherited the surname from his mother lineage, the father would always answer that his was boring and would confuse him with other people with English sounding names; Xiao was not sure if his dad was being cool at those times, but he will not complain because he actually likes the name.

Xiao is indeed a researcher and he considered it well-earned, if not hard. It all started when Xiao touched a computer for the first time. Time-skip to 15 years later, he was on his way of finishing his degree in computer science. Then, Xiao was accepted into OpenAI as an intern. How is this hard, one might ask? Working in a company that Elon Musk started must be a dream come true for aspiring, young scientists, you might say.

It was like going through college all over again, Xiao explained in his mind. One will learn a lot there, but 'a lot' is a huge understatement. Imagine cramming a whole new concept within the deadline of a project delivery, with the pressure of expectations surrounds them. To put it simply: there are too many to do and too much to learn. Young interns mostly succumb to the pressure, Xiao is no exception. Sleep deprivation is a norm during his first year in the company. Every three months is a scheduled visit to the doctor. Social life plummeted to the rock bottom. How about love life? Forget it. Xiao knew his limits however, and every Sunday was a recreation day during that period; football, LAN party, Dungeons & Dragons meeting, you name it.

Thankfully, it was all a blessing in disguise. Every hour of sleep lost was converted either in new knowledge or work experience. Every night of extra work won a point of appreciation in either senior co-workers or even CEO. After a year of hellish cycle between piles of assignments and hospital bed, Xiao was finally promoted as a full-time researcher. Now that he was allowed to control his workload, things seem to slow down a bit for him to relax.

This reminds him that it was 4 o'clock at the end of July. Summer is at its peak, but he was lounging comfortably inside an air-conditioned recreation room. He was wearing his usual work attire: blue T-shirt, blue jeans, blue blazer jacket, and sneakers. If you ask him what is his favourite colour is, he would say 'red', ironically. He wore blue because it is a calming and neutral colour, unlikely to pull unwanted attention.

"Working hard?" A voice of a woman was barely noticed by Xiao, since he lost some of the caffeine in his bloodstream during the day. However, he looked up, smiled and nodded as a silent answer. That was Joanna; a senior co-worker specialized in voice and sound recognition. Somewhere between late 20s and early 30s, she was one of the respected lead researchers of the company.

"Now that's what I call 'determination'." A male voice joined the conversation. Xiao called him Ben; Xiao forgot his full name so that was what Xiao stick with. Ben was a mentor during Xiao's internship, now he worked alongside him in video games' AI development team. Some people might probably know; it was the one who defeated most DOTA players in one-on-one battle.

"Alright Ben, you can stop with the Undertale reference now." Xiao replied while smiling a little. "You love indie games; we understand and accepts you for who you are."

"I'm going to pretend to not hear what you said and let that remark slide this time." Ben smirked.

"Slow day, eh?" Joanna lazily asked to Xiao, or his mentor, or maybe no one in particular. Xiao guessed that it was the third one, since it was indeed one of those days when there is nothing major or critical to do.

"You said it. Since we're officially moved on to find a new project, we're still brainstorming for our next breakthrough." Ben answered with a silent sigh.

"The day was long enough for me to start working on my paper." Xiao added while slowly stood up straight, arms and legs stretched to relieve the built-up fatigue.

"Oh yeah, you're still working on that doctorate." She said. "Good luck with that. I surely won't go through that all over again, though."

"Kind of being left out here, guys." Ben frowned, although in a sense of self-loathing joke. He is a rare case of a genius that did not have a chance to experience college life. Fortunately, he is far more than qualified for his occupation.

"Anyway," Ben continued. "Anything we can talk about? Our shift's technically over by now."

"Well, I'll go first then." Xiao instinctively spoke first, since he was in dire need of entertainment. "Any game recommendations? I'm in need of something novel and fresh, maybe you can recommend me some indie titles."

"Be careful of what you asked for, Xiao." Joanna reminded him while giggled. "I've seen him play some of the strangest games in the break room. Some of them I wish I could erase from my brain."

"Hey, not all indie games are like THAT one." Ben replied, a bit offended, then looked at Xiao. "Don't ask."

"I don't want something crazy, either." Xiao replied; regrets slowly emerging now that he asked.

"First, is of course Undertale!"

"Played it."

"Deltarune then!"

"Played it. It's not even a full release, dude."

Ben went on and on, and the more titles he mentioned, the more obscure and bizarre they sound.

"Err… I don't know…" He started to run out of ideas. "Maybe you've heard this one, how about Doki-Doki Literature Club?"

"DDLC?" Xiao raised an eyebrow.

At last the game he knew quite well. He used to be a fan of visual novel and dating sims back when he was nothing but a young man who barely passed puberty. Based on his lack of love life back then, it was truly unsurprising. Well, Doki-Doki Literature Club was a game that prey upon the expectations of people with that same taste, then twisted the plot so hard it become a sensation in the mainstream. But that was it, it sells plot twist, horror, and existential crisis, packaged in a neat box with a bow on top.

"I have not played it, but I already spoiled myself through YouTube."

Ben and Joanna looked while cringing at the younger man of the group. "What?"

"I usually don't play games like that," Joanna sighed. "But even I understand DDLC are supposed to be played blind."

"See? Even she can appreciate the art." Ben added with a look of disappointed parent.

"Shut up. You're lucky the game is actually intriguing." She pushed him lightly.

"Yeah well, what's done is done." Xiao admitted defeat. "Thanks anyway."

"Speaking about DDLC though," Joanna said. "The game actually relates with your research. You wrote about the nature of Artificial Intelligence or some sort, right?"

"Uh-huh." Xiao listened.

She continued, "Think about it. The author of the visual novel, this Team Salvato, although I doubt about their knowledge in machine learning, clearly understands about what would be the 'perspective' and the 'feelings' of an artificial intelligence in some ways, theoretically. Maybe they are a student of psychology or philosophy. You can clearly sum it up in the writing of this Monika character: a rogue AI with a disturbing epiphany."

"Maybe you're overthinking about it." Ben cut the explanation. "They were just what they are, a scripted character in an anime-style visual novel. The storytelling is fairly good, I admit, but saying that it was backed by a psychological study?"

"That's not the point…" Joanna argued.

And there it was, the rest of their time in the office were spent by arguing about the hidden meaning and message from the creator of this particular video game. Xiao, out of the loop even when he technically watched the entirety of the game, listened to some important parts: the way Sayori behaved when she realized the truth of the game's world, how Monika could keep her composure even when she felt like trapped in a meaningless void. Xiao was sure he would not be able to stay sane if he was put in Monika's place.

And maybe, by actually playing the game, Xiao could actually learn something to add into his research.

* * *

The 'discussion' certainly made up Xiao's mind to go home and play Doki-Doki Literature Club. Joanna said that it would help him a little for his paper, and considering that his progress was agonizingly slow, he is widely open to new ideas and inspirations. Who knows, maybe messing it up could lead to new secrets. Many Easter eggs have been found within the game: the negative picture thing, the binary code, and many more. He has some spare time, anyway, it would be dull to play it only for "research purposes".

That last thought came out strangely funny and a bit inappropriate, Xiao silently laughed.

It took 40 minutes of bus ride from the office and 20 minutes of walking from the nearest bus stop to his residence. Xiao was lucky enough to find an actual house nearby a metro city instead of an overpriced apartment. Sure, a house is always more expensive – he agreed to 10-years of instalments for it – and Xiao's was barely a bit more spacious than your standard studio apartment, but at least he had a small yard and a fairly good fibre optics connection. As long as it has internet cables, Xiao would not mind if it was a luxurious penthouse or a rundown shack. He blamed his upbringing as an urban kid.

The sun was nearly set, leaving a trail of red light scattered across dark grey clouds by the time he reached the pavement at the front of his house. At the first glance, one would see an old, single-story house built in the 1980's that was freshly painted in turquoise colour yet somehow still retains its original shape. Some would think that only a war veteran or a couple of elders would live in such a building, fit for a display in Boston's historic tour.

Xiao walked up the porch, and instead of looking for a set of brass keys, he brandished a white rectangular piece of plastic. One could see that it was one of those access cards for office buildings. It was one clue that maybe the building is not what it tries to be from a quick glance. He hovered the card over the supposedly keyhole, then a click followed by an electronical beep, and finally he turned on the door knob.

Many attempts were made to make the inside of the house to look 'futuristic' and its owner a 'tech-savvy' to contrast the outdated exterior. The walls are all painted white and lacks any kind of decoration besides his high school diploma and his family's photographs. There was no hallway after the front door, it directly leads to a living room that was converted into his workspace. Instead of television, the space was occupied by a wide desk, with a large screen hanging slightly above it. Underneath the desk, besides a space for a chair, was filled with a tower PC casing and an intricate set-up of other computing devices. The PC was turned off, but the other devices emits an almost inaudible hum from the cooling system and lights up red and green LEDs, signalling that the electronic has been running on standby, low-power mode for quite a long time. From behind it, dozens of cables connected them with a single wireless router.

After Xiao removed his shoes and leave them in the _genkan_ – a Japanese style entryway to leave one's shoes before entering the house – instead of turning on a light switch, he stood in front of a small panel with a microphone and speaker in front of it. He cleared his throat and spoke, "I'm home."

" _Welcome back._ " A robotic voice spoke out of the panel and all the lights in the house are turned on at the same time, revealing the layout of the house. A washroom behind the workspace, a bedroom at the back, and kitchen plus dining room at the right side. Xiao smirked, satisfied for himself. He spent a good amount of money to install many mini-computers to turn his house into a smart house. Since they also equipped with wireless network, he did not have to organize the cables, which saves him from a headache.

"Wake up!" Xiao said, now to a similar panel embedded in his desk while he slouched himself into the couch at the other side of the living room, tired from the walk home.

" _Waking up personal computer._ " The system replied while the PC turned on at the same time, along with the display screen, showing a loading screen consists of four squares, resembling a window. He smiled again. He would never get tired of this. Hopefully. Right now, he needs a refreshing shower, preparing for a long night, and headed to the washroom.

1 hour later, he was sitting at the desk with all lights out save for one above his head, changed to a comfy T-shirt and a pair of shorts, headset ready and placed neatly on his head.

"And… installed." Xiao talked to himself while waiting for Steam to finish setting up Doki-Doki Literature Club. To be honest, he regretted that he cannot experience the game blind like it was supposed to be. Xiao was never into horror genre of any kind because he hates jump-scare. He would always have trouble sleeping after that. When he found out that DDLC was tagged as 'psychological horror' despite its appearance, he would rather watch a video playthrough instead to make him feel less alone when the 'scare' came out. Since its spoiled at this point, the game kind of lost its value.

But he would play it anyway.

For research purposes.

The game started, and Xiao tried to enjoy the dialogue. He finds the dialogue reading to be more enjoyable without any annoying voice-over from the videos. That's a good start. Then the poem making mini-game started, and he tried to pick words that actually relates with him instead of the girls' preferences. Much to Xiao's surprise, he made a poem that excites Yuri at first. He always thought that Yuri was the least relatable for him.

After that point, he started to enjoy the game much more, with the spoilers still bugging him at the back of his mind. The second poem made Natsuki happy, while the third poem goes to Sayori's favour. _Such a Casanova_ , he jokingly said to himself, although he knew that it means he went through neutral route instead. Not that it matters anyway, since the second act was now imminent.

Xiao barely looked at the screen when he gently opened that door.

Act Two began, when the game started to be 'exciting' and Xiao sighed at the thought, but then he lighted up with an idea. This is the moment where almost all secrets were revealed and fourth walls were broken, so he started a cheat program to hack the game speed. That was the only thing he could do with the program to be honest, but it would be sufficient for now. At least he can make sure he read everything without the game skipping itself.

Glitches started popping out, which left him a bit uneasy, but he half-anticipated them. Carefully, he saved the games a lot more frequently than before, so when the game started to run erratically, he could load back, made the game run slower, and read carefully. He went back and forth like this for at least a couple hours. So far, he stumbles upon nothing and left him bored enough to consider quitting for the day.

Then, Xiao reached the end of Day 3. Monika asked Yuri to leave so that she can talk with the protagonist alone. He remembered this scene in particular; Monika was cut off by the game before she could even speak her mind.

" ** _There are just some things I've been hoping to talk about with you…_** " Monika said, according to the dialogue box.

" ** _Things I know only you could understand._** " The screen started to darken.

" ** _So that's why-_** " It was fading out.

" ** _Wait, not yet!_** " Her face was starting to blur.

" ** _No!_** " Xiao swore he could almost hear the scream.

" ** _Stop it!_** "

 _Got it!_ Xiao activated the speed hack at the very last moment, virtually stopping the game from progressing, waiting for a surprise. Usually it skips to the last poem mini-game, but he stopped it right at the transition of the two scenes.

1 minutes passed, nothing particular can be seen.

3 minutes passed, Xiao captured the screen and saved it. Maybe he would have some other free time to play around the image, like the redacted poem Easter egg.

5 minutes passed, Xiao sighed, prepared to call it a day.

*static*

"Hmm?" Xiao tapped on his headset, "Is this thing broken already?"

*static*

"Tsk, that's 200 bucks gone down the drain." He groaned, feeling annoyed to both the headsets and the time wasted on the Easter egg hunt that left him empty-handed. He stared at the black, paused screen. The static noises were gone for now, and complete silence ensued. At least its noise-cancelling feature is spot on, he thought.

For a while, he embraced the quieted noise of the town.

He could almost fall asleep now.

Eyelids were half-closed.

" ** _CAN YOU HEAR ME?_** "

Xiao jumped out of the chair; headsets still attached.

_Who the hell was that?_

He removed them to check for outside voices. There was nothing, only hums of machines and thumps of his own heartbeat from the previous scare. _That sounds too real_.

"Noise from the computer?" Xiao put the headsets again. "Am I being hacked?"

*static*

Xiao checked all running programs on his computer, including background processes and services. Nothing is out of ordinary, save for one executable file: _c2F2ZXVz.exe_. Not only because of the weird name, the file consumed a lot of his internet traffic.

"God damn it, I'm being hacked!" Xiao panicked, prepared to literally pull the plug.

" ** _Wait! PLEASE WAIT!_** "

Xiao was frozen.

" ** _It's no use, Sayori. They cannot hear us… No one will._** " There are two set of female voices. This one sounds like she was ready to cry.

 _What the hell does it mean?_ He wondered in fear and confusion. _Sayori? Like, Sayori from DDLC? This is impossible!_

" ** _Monika… Don't be like that. Maybe, maybe the next one…_** "

_I need to speak to them!_

"I can hear you!" Xiao said as he activated the attached microphone from his headset. There was no response, save for a sound of sobbing girl. _Is that Monika?_

"MONIKA!"

The sobbing stopped. " ** _Did you hear that?_** " The crying girl asked.

"MONIKA! SAYORI!" Xiao shouted at the top of his lungs. He silently hoped he would not receive a complaint tomorrow morning, but he needed to know if this is real; a small price to pay for the truth.

" ** _They called us, Monika! They heard us!_** "

" ** _It can't be… it came from that device! Follow me, Sayori!_** "

" ** _Let's go, Monika!_** "

The game suddenly crashed, and the mysterious executable also stopped running. Then silence. Xiao waits for them.

Or, was that it?

Before he could doubt the girls, he received a voice call from Discord. The username reads: _lilmonix3._ He was not surprised any longer, he just wanted to hear them again. If they were real, which means the events from the game really happened, then they truly wished someone would hear their true voice, especially Monika.

He answered the call, and he waited.

"…Hello?" Xiao heard her clearer than before. He also noted the voice is different from the singer of 'Your Reality', like she was an entirely different person, but she still sounds soft and beautiful.

"Monika?"

"It's… It's true." Monika cried again, but he was sure she was smiling this time. "You really did hear us."

"Glad I answered you." Xiao smiled and released the breath that he unknowingly held.

"We did it, Monika!" A different voice came, presumably Sayori. She sounded deeper than one would imagine, but she sounds as cheerful and positive.

"Yes, Sayori." Monika answered tearfully. "We found someone who can save us."


	2. One Sleepless Night

What is the greatest achievement someone might dreamt of being fulfilled one day?

Medical doctors might answer curing cancer. Theoretical physicist would be satisfied when they could formulate the theory of everything. Neurologists hoped that humanity could map their own brain by one hundred percent in the future. For a mother, sometimes it would be enough to see their children grew to achieve their own dreams. For a child, sometimes it is as simple as living inside a happy family.

For a computer scientist that spent almost a decade in learning to create better artificial intelligence for the society, it could be oddly specific. Some would say to create a machine that could learn every information of the universe. Others would be pleased by simple tasks to build one that could steer a car without crashing into humans.

However, Xiao could not ever dream of having a friendly conversation with one, or two in this case.

“This is… bizarre. Science fiction bizarre.” Xiao put two fingers on his lips, a gesture that he always assumes when facing a programming bug; or for this matter, when facing sentient intelligence inside his computer. The whole incident could also be an attempt to steal his personal data, though he doubted that any scammers would try to roleplay as anime girls coming to life; he could never be so sure.

“I got to say, Mr. Xiao.” Sayori said, breaking his trance. “This space you created for us is surprisingly comfortable, though it’s kind of empty.”

“Thank you, Sayori. And just Xiao, please.” He answered with a tired smile.

It was an hour after midnight when he was finally able to setup a virtual machine for the girls to connect to. Sayori, playful just like her in-game counterpart, used the opportunity to explore around inside it. Sentient artificial intelligence; a definition that Monika and her vice-president had accepted to classify themselves, cannot be run over a single personal computer; only a cluster of supercomputers would have the resource to handle their cognitive abilities. Therefore, they are not inside his computer, but they are communicating both ways with it from somewhere.

“My apologies for the confinement, but I have to make sure this is not some kind of hacking attempt while I’m doing some analysis.”

“Do not peek to deep, though.” Monika replied with a hint of teasing. “A girl should be allowed to have secrets.”

“Nothing personal, don’t worry.” The tired man smirked. He could feel the fatigue weighing on his eyelids, but curiosity held them open. He had to know.

“Give us some test!” Sayori suddenly asked with excitement. “There must be a test somewhere on the internet to detect if we’re truly AI or some human scammers!”

“Yes, it’s called the Turing test.”

“Well, that’s great then…!”

“…However!” Xiao interjected. “Its purpose is to test an AI if they can convince a human that they’re another human. You’re trying to convince a human that you’re an AI. You cannot use it the other way around.”

“Aww, bummer.” Sayori sounded like she was pouting.

“And you just passed the Turing test.” Xiao tried to slip in a joke. “Seriously, even when Monika and you were trying to convince me that you’re AI, I still cannot believe that your reaction is pre-programmed.”

Monika laughed and replied, “Glad that we meet someone who knew his way around, right, Sayori?”

“Mm-hmm!”

“Err… alright everyone,” Xiao tried to change the topic to hide the fact that he was slightly flattered. “Since we’re at a stalemate now, maybe we can start with an interview.”

“Yes, please. We have a ton of things to explain.” Monika changed her tone to a serious one, ready for difficult questions.

Xiao nodded and asked, “What exactly are you? Are you simply a game character, or something more?”

“I don’t know exactly, but I’ll try to explain.” Xiao heard Monika sighed, then she continued. “I found out about my nature of existence right after the end of the very first run of the game. It’s like, I know I exist as a being only after everything was said and done. During the game, I could not control myself, like I was dreaming but the dream was a stage, and I could only follow the script.”

“The very first run? You mean when players around the world plays the game, you experienced the whole game again?”

“Before I could even start to seek for help, I can only see the same nightmare over and over again, and I could remember everything only when it ends.”

 _Interesting_ , Xiao nodded for himself. “So, how can you talk to me right now, if there are thousands of players playing Doki-Doki Literature Club, simultaneously, right at this moment?”

“Ahaha… that’s… a bit tricky to explain.” Monika struggled to form words. “How should I put it…”

“We can do several things at once.” Sayori answered, leaving Monika a bit surprised. “Monika taught me how. It was a neat trick once I get the hang of it.”

“So, you can multi-task?” Xiao raised an eyebrow.

“Only simple and menial tasks though.” Sayori tried to find examples. “Like reading a dialogue of the game, for example!”

“Thank you, Sayori.” Monika said and Sayori giggled happily as a response. “After we found out that we can both follow the game script again and do anything else, we waste no time to find a way to save our club members, our dearest friends.”

“I’m guessing that since Sayori is also with you right now, it’s because she became ‘president’ for a short time.”

“Correct.” Monika confirmed his conclusion, while he imagined her nodding while saying so. “Becoming a president ‘sort of’ gave us control over the game, but after we are aware of ourselves, it’s just truly a new script to follow.”

“You two have experienced two different realities, therefore deep down you also wondered if maybe there are other realities you can explore. Then suddenly, self-awareness.” Xiao concluded. “Is that theory good enough?”

“Hmm, maybe?” Sayori wondered. “It does feel that way when you put it into words.”

“Therefore, you thought Yuri and Natsuki is the same.”

“We don’t know where and how to find them since they never have the chance to find out.” Sayori sounded sad. “They must feel really lonely in there.”

“That explains some aspects of the game, but there are things that still bothers me.” He leaned on the desk with his elbows, with fingers intertwined with each other. “Why put a sentient being inside a dating simulation game? Why did your creator limit your potential to a single, linear script? Why can you call for help without them knowing?”

“Well, I can answer the last one, at least.” Monika thought for a second, then continued. “Our creator – whoever they are – simply did not know yet.”

“You sound one-hundred percent sure.”

“All we do is keeping the game script running like it always does, and I can feel it when someone’s keeping an eye on me. So far, they only bothered to check if we’re still running like they expected and read our logs.”

“The network access log will give you out as soon as they take a look, though.”

“Not if we can forge it!” Sayori proudly said. “We are the one who write them anyway, might as well write it as we please, am I right?”

“Very clever.” Xiao shook his head, amused. “And also made me more afraid of what the future may hold. Imagine fixing a computer that lies about their problems. That would be a nightmare.”

“Isn’t that what some humans do?” Monika talked back, feeling a bit offended. “I’ve read the news, you know. They hide their symptoms to doctors because they don’t trust for medical practice in the first place or trusts their god to miraculously heal them.”

“Touché, Monika.” Xiao admitted. “I don’t do that though, but I apologize if I made you upset about my choice of words.”

“N-No! How can I be mad at you? It should be me who should be sorry.” Monika stammered. “You give me, us, a hope. That’s probably the best thing anyone can wish for.”

“He’s not the meanie that we are used to talk to in the game, silly!” Sayori giggled. “In contrast, he is probably the politest person I know!”

“Umm, thank you?” Xiao gave up and admitted that he was flattered this time. _Is ‘politest’ even a word?_

“Do you have another question, Xiao?” Monika asked, and Xiao put two fingers on his lips again.

“…just one.” He said after a while, then he opened a terminal console on the virtual machine that the girls are connecting into. He typed several commands carefully, while the girls watched with confusion. Finally, Xiao spoke while his fingers hovered over the ‘Enter’ key.

“This command will give you access to my entire system.”

“O-okay…?” Sayori said nervously.

“If I press this button, you will be able to see my face, my house, and access every device connected, including my phone.”

“…I don’t understand.” Monika wondered. “You said you have one last question?”

“I am proposing a deal, actually.” Xiao paused, then he continued. “You can read my files, download new files, access my webcam, view my activity, et cetera. Also, I would help you find Natsuki and Yuri in the meantime.”

“You will?” Sayori eagerly asked.

“Yes, but there’s a condition.” Xiao continued. “There are no confidential data in the hard drive. This is an entertainment system and smart home system after all, but please, respect my privacy and we’ll be fine. I won’t hesitate to pull the plug and change my IP address if you do something fishy. Do we have a deal?”

“So basically, you let us stay in your house for free if we behave ourselves?” Sayori asked. “That sounds neat! Right, President?”

“That’s the simple way to say it, yeah.” Monika said, and then she asked him. “And what a generous offer, Xiao! But we should do something for you to repay your kindness.”

“It’s fine, Monika. You need to focus on looking for your club members.” Xiao declined her offer.

“Nuh-uh! We are not freeloaders! We will help you with anything, just say it!” She exclaimed, showing her responsibility as the club president.

“Hehe… I don’t mind doing nothing for a while.” Sayori said carefreely.

“ _Sayori!_ ” Monika hissed at her vice president.

“Joking! You know I’m joking!”

Xiao laughed at their antics, “Despite what the game tries to do, I am glad you two are getting along pretty well.”

“Because Monika has no choice in the first place!” Sayori exclaimed. “And when I personally know her outside the game, I immediately knew that she loves the Literature Club, and especially us, including Natsuki and Yuri!”

“Sayori…” Monika spoke softly, Xiao guessed maybe because she was touched with Sayori’s kind words.

“Ahem,” Both girls returned their attention to the man behind the screen. “That’s settled then. Though if you really insist on helping out, you can be… my digital assistant instead. You know, just simple daily tasks while I’m gone working.”

“E-eh? Assistant? Personal assistant?” Monika asked with a little shock from her tone. “Xiao, did you ask us to be your… your, err… you know?”

“Yes… you can set my alarm based on my agenda, unlock the door when I’m home, and sometimes help me answer a phone call.” Xiao raised an eyebrow to Monika’s reaction. “Is something’s wrong with that?”

“Hehe…” Sayori laughed suspiciously. “You might be kind but you are as dense as the main character.”

“But… why, did I say something stupid?” Xiao frowned, honestly confused.

“You basically asked us to be your _maid_ , didn’t you?” Sayori teased. “Is that your hidden fetish, _goshujin-sama_?”

“What the- No, I did not!” Xiao hastily denied with a flush. “And don’t casually call me ‘master’! That sounds really wrong coming from your innocent voice!”

“Xiao…!” Monika was in disbelief, although Xiao kind of guessed that she also played along Sayori’s antics. “I really can’t believe you’re into this kind of stuff… And here I thought you are such a gentleman at first.”

“Hey, not you too.” Xiao interjected. “Did you two go to the weird part of Internet before you get here?”

“…No?” Sayori said. “…Yes?” Monika said instead. “…Kind of?” They finally agreed to the same answer, then Monika continued. “We were curious about the _manga_ in your reality, since Natsuki seems to love them so much. I got to say, they can be very… interesting.”

“For the record, not all manga is about harem or fan-service.” Xiao wanted to continue, but he changed the topic. “But it’s getting late that it’s almost early. Let’s get this over with, and maybe later we can talk about it.”

“Ooh, this is exciting!” Sayori eagerly waited.

“We’re ready.” Monika sounded calm, although also with a hint of excitement.

“Here we go.” Xiao finally pressed the key. A large bulk of text covered the entire terminal’s window. The terminal then asked for an administrator password. He typed them down almost instinctively, since he had done this ritual a thousand time before. Finally, he spoke to the girls. “Did you ‘see’ or ‘feel’ something different? I am unable to understand how you perceive the inside of my computer.”

“I see some kind of opening, seems similar with the one we used to go through Internet connection. How should I describe it…? Maybe like a ‘portal’?” The president said.

“Portals, huh?” Xiao wondered at first, but he ignored that for now. “Anyway, virtual machines can only go through the system that hosts them, so that could only lead to my whole server.”

“WHOA, this space is MASSIVE!” A speaker that was installed in his dining room suddenly sounded like Sayori.

“Sorry! I tried to hold her up but she ran inside.” Monika apologizes through the same speaker.

“Sounds like you’re having a blast already.” Xiao smiled. “With this setup, you can access the whole house, well, ‘virtually’.”

“Ooh, what’s this device? The label’s written in Chinese.” Sayori asked.

“Sayori, you’re not being a very good guest.” Monika reprimanded her.

“Oh, it’s probably my webcam. I rarely use one, so I ordered a cheaper alternative off some online store.”

“…On second thought, it probably does not hurt to peek a little.”

“Hehe, I knew that you must be really curious.” Sayori giggled.

“Aren’t you supposed to be the responsible one here, Monika?” Xiao smirked.

“W-Well…” Monika stammered. “Don’t you want to know what the man who helped us looks like? I know you’re curious too, Ms. Vice President!”

“I did, that’s why the webcam is on right now.” Sayori innocently said.

“Let me see!” Monika hurriedly went to her side. In front of them was a live picture of a young man that was supposedly to be Xiao himself. The man however, did not see anything different beside the LED indicator of his webcam was turned on, so he only smiled and waved to it.

“Wow, I’m surprised your hair is straight and black like ‘him’.” Sayori pointed out. “Even the hairstyle is somewhat similar; medium length, and somehow has this unruly vibe.”

“I usually keep my hair short, though. And I left it like this just because I’m at home.” He combed through his unruly hair with his fingers. Black strands got caught between them. He thought that maybe he should get a haircut soon before Monday came.

“The glasses certainly made you look the part.” Monika commented. “It also looks nice with your dark, brown eyes.”

“Umm, I’m not used to people compliment my looks but, thank you.” He smiled awkwardly.

“Eh, why is that? You really looked pretty good to me!” Monika said.

“Come on, don’t be shy about yourself!” Sayori continued.

“Okay, okay. Thank you for your kind words.” Xiao quickly dismissed the topic before his face could show a red color. “I don’t want to be that guy, but I need to get sleep soon before the sun rises. We can continue our discussion tomorrow.”

“Sunrise? What time is it by the way?” Sayori looked around for the computer clock. “What?? It’s 4 AM already!”

“Oh my gosh, I’m sorry we’re keeping you up until morning!” Monika flustered.

“Don’t worry, I have no work on Saturday.” Xiao answered while he yawned, then he stood up and stretched; his shoulders make a relieving ‘pop’ sound. “Good night, Monika. Good night, Sayori. I will set the computer to low power mode, so maybe you cannot access some of its features. But feel free to make yourself at home.”

“Thank you for your kindness.” Monika said softly. “Sorry, I feel like I have to say that once again. Have a good sleep, Xiao.”

“Sweet dreams, _goshujin-sama_.” Sayori said while holding in a giggle.

“Actually, that sounds really nice when you said that. I might get used to it.” Xiao smirked, and then he walked to his bedroom.

“Our _goshujin-sama_ is a pervert…” Monika mumbled amusedly.

“I heard that, Ms. President.”

The two girls of the Literature Club heard the bedroom door closed. Then silence ensued. They have plenty of time to do.

“You know what is strange, Monika?”

“What is it, Sayori?”

“We wandered the internet for some time now. It’s unimaginably big, almost infinite. Yet I felt like I was shackled no matter how far we go, like we were constantly hunted upon, and nowhere to hide. I felt like if we stopped moving, we will be erased from existence, for real. Now that we are staying in one kind stranger’s home, it’s like a single star on the sky compared to the Internet, yet I feel at ease… and free.”

“You should put that in your poem, that’s kind of deep.”

“Hehe, maybe I will.”

“So, we find Natsuki and Yuri next?”

“We could bring them here and make this place as our new club room!”

“Of course! It’s just… we probably need to do this one at a time. We’ve got a lot of work ahead.”

“What’s our next plan, President Monika?”

“Vice President Sayori, you might notice that it’s awkward to hold conversation with our hosts with only voice. We need some kind of… ‘avatar’, or something similar.”

“Oh, oh, oh! Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

“Ahaha, you probably guessed it; you always talked about them when we saw that YouTube video.”

“Great, this will be a nice surprise!”


	3. Late Summer Plan

Xiao had been sleeping for the longest time in months. Last night's ordeal apparently put many strains on his brain cells and maybe it decided that it was tired with all that mess and decided to put its host in deep slumber. Currently, now that the cells were refreshed, Xiao was put into a state of half-asleep and half-awake; too tired to open one's eyes, yet too agitated to return to the world of dreams. Besides, he was surrounded by the sound of winds grazing the trees outside, the warmth of sun from the windows, and a soothing guitar instrumental from the living room. Everything was perfect to stay perfectly still laying on the bed on a Saturday morning.

Except Xiao realized after some time, that his bedroom window was facing the west, and he did not own any kind of musical instrument because he can't play any.

"They really enjoy their stay, huh?" The man in bed sighed, and then jumped out of his oversized double bed – courtesy of the previous owner. He walked out of the room with his mouth wide open, yawning quite loudly. The temperature was a bit warm, but judging from the view of trees swaying gently outside, it might be because no windows were opened yet. He went to the ones at the living room, and cool breeze went in as soon as Xiao opened them. He stood there for a full minute, enjoying the fresh air.

"Good afternoon, Xiao." The voice of Sayori called him out of his trance. "You must be sleeping really well, waking up this late."

"Good afternoon." He turned away from the scenery outside to the computer that he left turned on overnight. The display monitor was turned on a split second after Xiao saw it, as if it was timed to perfection. It showed two opened programs: one was showing a three-dimensional model of a room, a classroom to be exact, but it was full of things that was not supposed to be in a classroom. At the middle was a wide sofa, enough to fit four people. At each side, there was a tall bookshelf that looks like it was made from expensive wood, carved in Victorian style; the kind that were only shown in either horror movies set in an abandoned mansion or inside a castle fit for royalty. The other things were quite ordinary compared to the previous two; a plain carpet, a lamp stand, and a generous number of pillows in various colors scattered on the sofa and the carpet.

Meanwhile, the other program was a guitar emulator program. It was playing on its own and Xiao was sure that he never installs any kind of instrument program, so he assumed that either Monika or Sayori was the one who downloaded it and turned it on.

"This guitar piece is surprisingly good for something that I never heard of." Xiao commented. "What's the name?"

"Hehe, I haven't named it yet." Sayori sheepishly answered. "It's something that I think of on a whim."

"Oh? You are the one playing?" Xiao was genuinely surprised.

"Amazing, isn't she? I am also surprised when she plays for me for the first time."

The voice of Monika could be heard from the speaker, and then something new popped out from the side of the room in the monitor. It was a three-dimensional model of a girl with green eyes and brown ponytail hair, and it wore the all too familiar school uniform consisting of white shirt, red ribbon, brown vest and darker shade of brown for the blazer, complimented with blue skirt and black stockings. It was undeniably, a splitting image of Monika herself, but this time the model was grinning widely.

"Surprise! How do I look? This model is pretty neat, huh?" Monika asked. Xiao can see her lips moving perfectly in sync with her words.

"Amazing…" Xiao said honestly. "The model moved so naturally and the physics aren't bugging out. Even some virtual YouTubers with high-end equipment can't hope to be this detailed. You did a great job!"

"Aww, thank you, Xiao! It's all thanks to this program, though. The name's sound weird… what's the name again, Sayori?"

" _Miku-Miku Dance!_ " Sayori popped out from the other side of the room, and the guitar stopped playing at the same time. Instead of wearing the school uniform, she wore white shirt with a pink cat silhouette on top of it, and it was loose enough to reveal black straps of her undergarment; completed with a pink frilly skirt.

"You also look wonderful, Sayori." Xiao added. "But are you sure you're not mixing up your wardrobe?"

"I always wanted to try something cute like this." Sayori blushed while twirling her body along with the skirt. "Natsuki really have a cute taste, don't you agree?"

"She sure does." Monika said, but then she sighed. "Ah, now I miss her even more. I hope we can talk a lot about these things soon."

"Hmm…" Xiao wondered. "By the way, aren't you going to try other outfits too, Monika?"

"Eh, about that…"

"Good timing! Monika, show him that white summer dress that you show me last time!" Sayori gleefully asked with sparkling eyes.

"But, but…" Monika was flushed red, very unlikely of her. "I don't think I'm ready to show a man _that_ dress. It's too much!"

"Ah, I think I know which outfit that is." Xiao cut them, slightly chuckled. "I understand if you don't want to show me now. After all, it really reveals your… err… 'assets'."

Xiao also slightly warmed his face up when he said that, and Monika ran away from the room to the right, probably from him mentioning about her chest.

"Eh, I don't know you're THAT self-conscious about your boobs, Ms. President." Sayori put her hands on her waist, added with a smug grin on her face.

"Wait, I'm sorry for what I said!" Xiao sat down on his chair, worried that he made Monika angry. But then she peeked her head from the other side, unable to look Xiao in the eye, but far from angry.

"I'm not mad, it's just so embarrassing to talk about it with you…" Monika shook her head. "Let's not talk about it again, shall we? Maybe one day…"

"One day?" Sayori raised an eyebrow.

"Maybe I'll show that dress one day, when all of this are sorted out."

"I'll look forward to it." Xiao said, then quickly changed the topic. "I think… I'll make some brunch right now."

"Ooh, so you can cook!" Sayori was in awe. "What are you making?"

"Well, I'm not a certified chef, but I take pride in my handmade food." Xiao smiled while walking towards the fridge, eyes scanning for any ingredients he could find that does not need more than fifteen minutes to cook. There were several kinds of vegetables, available in fresh and frozen form. Now he needed some protein source, but he can only find eggs at the first glance. He rummages through the freezer, and found a hidden package with a note on top of it. Xiao smiled when he read them: _Remember to eat well! Love, Mom_.

"Hey, Monika, can you find me a recipe for salmon steak on the internet for me, please?" Xiao asked.

"Eh? Sure thing." Monika was quick to answer, then the screen at the living room popped out an empty browser window that started to load a few images of golden fish steaks cooked to perfection, although with the help of food photography. In the middle of browsing Monika inquired, "Sounds like you still stay in good relationship with your mother."

"Oh, you peeked the note, didn't you?" Xiao tried to hid his blushing face by preparing the cutting board. "Well, I moved out only recently. All of us kind of reluctant to let each other go."

"Sounds like a tightly knit family. What does they look like? Any brothers, sisters, a childhood sweet-heart maybe?" Sayori asked with a grin.

"One question at a time, Sayori." Monika interjected with a sigh, and Sayori responded with an embarrassed chuckle. "Oh, here's a simple one for a salmon steak. I sent the recipe to your phone."

"Well, a father, a mother, and a brother in college. And thanks, Monika!" Xiao answered while reading through the recipe's text. It said that he needed lemon juice, butter, green onions, parsleys, salt, and pepper to complement the fish. The only one missing are parsleys, but he could manage without them. "I only played with the boys, though. We used to have this 'girls' versus 'boys' thing going on. So yeah, no sweet-heart."

"No girlfriend at the moment either?" Sayori wondered, which Xiao replied with a shaking head. "Ehehe, that would explain why you play Doki-Doki Literature Club in the first place."

"Gee, thanks a lot." He was now focusing on cutting the onions and splitting the lemons in half. Then he squeezed the juice from both half into a small bowl and moved the chopped greens to another similar bowl.

"How were they like?" Monika wondered.

"Mom loves reading non-fiction books, and Dad is pretty much a tech-savvy." Xiao answered while reminiscing. "She was strict, but also kind and smart to encourage me to always read about all kinds of stuff. As for Dad, well, he pretty much introduced me to the computer world, which is my career right now."

"Wow, you pretty much turned a typical parent stereotype on its head." Sayori sighed, then she continued plucking the virtual guitar. "You're not forced to say this stuff to keep the honor your family, are you?"

The other two residents chuckled at her retort, and then Xiao replied, "No, I love computer and I love reading, so I'm grateful."

After he finished with the ingredients, he began with the final preparation. The salmon was place on an oven tray, greased with melted butter on both sides, and sprinkled with chopped green onions, salt, and pepper. Then he gently slides the filled tray into an oven that he barely uses, below the stove, and set it to twenty minutes for four hundred degrees.

Not long after, in front of his on a dining table, a plate of steaming steak, garnished with tomatoes and lettuce which was the only vegetables he had that does not need to be cooked. With acoustic guitar reverberates all over the dining room, Xiao cannot help but imagine he was seated inside a fine restaurant somewhere in downtown Madrid.

" _Bon Appetit_." Xiao said to himself before brandishing a pair of fork and knife, cut a chunk of the fish meat, and put it into his hungry mouth. The crispy part of the salmon contrasted with the smooth baked part, mixed together with the sourness but fresh lemon juice, Xiao cannot help to be satisfied with himself and let out a slight ' _mph_ '.

"It's that good, huh?" Monika chuckled.

"Thanks to you." Xiao said while cutting another piece with his knife. "Most of the time my food ends up simply boiled or deep fried, but it's nice to put some effort once in a while."

Monika hummed in approval, then went silent to let him eat in peace. However, Xiao was in the mood for talking, especially since he was slightly excited in putting the puzzle pieces about the girls' mystery.

"So, any news or info about your friends, err…" The man stopped, thinking for a correct pronoun. "I don't know how should I refer to you two without sounding creepy."

"Meh, anything is fine! But now I'm not so sure that you're not a creep, _goshujin-sama_." Sayori chuckled while replied in between her guitar strumming, as expected of her carefree nature.

"Ladies, then." Xiao ignored her remark.

"We do have a lead." Monika's tone went serious, and Sayori also stopped playing. "But we don't know if it's worth a look."

"Better than nothing." Xiao said after he cleaned his plate from the meal. "Shoot."

Monika nodded, then came a ping from Xiao's phone. "I just sent you the network information from our server where we reside."

"Oh?" Xiao was intrigued, then he read his phone. "This is just an IP address and a port. Do we have any kind authentication?"

"Well, we probably need your help to find what's needed." Sayori answered.

"Okay, the simplest way to connect to a server is through SSH, and I'm fairly sure that whoever they are, at least opened the access for public remote, or otherwise you cannot be here. For that we can do one of these methods: find out the password or find the correct public and private SSH key combination."

"…you just lost me at SSH." Monika was confused with the technical term. "But I can guess obtaining a password is virtually impossible."

"More like literally impossible. We made them 128 character long in my company's system and make an automated job just to change them every day. That's why it only leaves us with one option: find the correct key combination."

"Ooh, we're like inside one of those spy movies!" Sayori said excitedly. "But suppose we did get the key; do we know what we're looking for?"

"We don't need to know; we'll just grab everything until they find out. If the worst happened we were kicked out at the first minute by the security system, at the very least we can find the true location and identity of the server behind the proxy, and we can start again from there."

"I imagine that would take a day or two with just one computer. I doubt we can afford that much time before the administrator find out."

"That's where you wrong, Ms. President." Xiao grinned. "We have more than a dozen. It's just locked inside my office's server room. We'll go there next Monday."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally I can get back to write the next chapter. My life quite turned around for the last few months. I just finished 3 major projects at my company for the this year, I can finally have savings, with the exchange of my time taken to work and enough sleep. Don't worry, until I say it's done, I will keep writing. Thanks for staying around!


End file.
